Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Honour Mode | Discussion and Screenshot Gallery

Post screenshots of your Honour Mode journey!

Topics for discussion:

• If you've completed Honour Mode, what were some of the most memorable moments (good and bad)?
• If you failed Honour Mode, what cost you the run, and what would you have done differently?
• Which enemies (including bosses and their legendary actions) and battles were the most challenging/caused the most trouble for you?
• What build(s) and classes did you use?
• Which buffs, spells/scrolls, potions, summons/familiars, abilities did you find most useful?

I have to admit, one of the most challenging battles for me was the final battle. I swear they threw in everything and the kitchen sink.
I finished honour mode and got the Foehammer achievement. Here is my shining golden dice:


Anyways, on this Honour Mode journey, I froze some meat:

Froze some fish:

Finally realized Orin dyed her hair red, and became friends with the Hag:

Anska. Anska are you lurking? I FINALLY ROMANCED GALE!


Gods, that nebula boatride is pretty. A fitting end to this journey.

I just finished honour mode myself but didn't take pictures, unfortunately!

Interestingly, by far the closest we came to wiping was the Grymforge battle, literally down to one action left on Durge with everyone else dead or downed. The finale for us was actually kind of a letdown and seemed way too easy. Not sure why we had such different experiences there.

As far as most useful skills, wet+call lightning definitely pulled its weight.

I am! =) Congratulations on your new dice - and on putting the stars to shame. Your's might be my favourite story about how to show some fangs to that pesky brain. I bet the epilogue party felt especially sweet after such a victory.

Aylin and mind flayers never seem to mix well. I am always surprised if she manages not to fail a wisdom save.

• For me the most memorable WTF MOMENT was Minthara aggroing all the guards within Moonrise due to a pathfinding issue and then having to fight them all swarming in from all directions as I was just trying to shop around, so spent some time afterwards rearranging all the lost content in the main hall out of sadness.
  
  Because of her my "invasion" of Moonrise in the act's finale was literally just Z'rell waiting for me as the only horrified survivor of Minthara's shenanigans.
  
  
  (YOU did this Minthy!)

  

• What cost me my first completely blind run was Lae'zel's betrayal at the very end.
  
  Was playing an evil Dark Urge by manipulating all companions to become fanatical zealot slaves to their own gods, so that when I eventually enslave them myself they'd be at their fullest potential, but for some reason I did not have it in my heart to do it to Lae'zel, it just felt wrong. So I did not make her a slave to Vlaakith... which ended up biting me in the butt later.
  
  Everything was going perfectly as I intended until she turned against me at the very end because I never intended to free a certain Gith. What followed next was an utterly humiliating catastrophe of a boss fight without her, so ironically enough we all got eternally enslaved instead.
  
  That's what I get for being nice to her... I immediately started my 2nd Honour playthrough to get back to where I was after that colossal screwup and this time manipulated her so hard she became Vlaakith's mega-simp as punishment. The end played out just as I originally intended with everyone eternally enslaved to me and Minthara;
  
  
  

• Hm... unfortunately I can't say any encounters posed a challenge and Raphael in particular was such a disappointment of a boss fight because he was such a pushover that I did not even get to see his true form.
  
  And Orin storywise only caused me massive trouble because I lost my Chosen Dark Urge ending that I really wanted to see, by stupidly trying to roleplay the duel honourably and defeating her in my Slayer form because the dialogue choice for it was freaking badass.
  
  Unfortunately I never used the form prior to that moment so realized too late that the Slayer form was indeed NOT badass against humanoid Orin. After that humiliating display of a duel I naturally won the battle that escalated, but lost all motivation for the playthrough for losing that specific ending and then Lae'zel betraying me at the end was just icing on the cake

• I was a ranged War Cleric multiclassed into Battle-master Fighter and Sword Bard.
  - Shadowheart was a Life Cleric.
  - Lae'zel a Battle-master Fighter/Tiger Barbarian.
  - Minthara a sharpshooter Champion Fighter.

• Arrows of Darkness and Invisibility potions. I am cursed to put my hands on everything, so five-finger discounts are the only way I shop around.

Honour Mode overall was extremely fun and I really loved its consistent experience from beginning to end. Going with the flow of the story and adapting to epic fails (looking at you Minthara) was an experience to remember for sure. Now my only wish is for Honour Mode rules to become available for Custom Mode so I can enjoy its exclusive balance changes and additions, but being able to save.

Also congrats and the way you beat the final encounter is hilarious. After Oblodra I thought Astarion would never bite anything even remotely resembling a squid, but then goes and bites the giga-brain instead

The first blind honour mode playthrough I did, I also didn't take screenshots. It wasn't until party death I realized, if I have to delete the save when they die, I should probably take some pictures to remmeber the character by.

I didn't have too many issues with Grymforge fights, even Grym went as expected. I did aggro both sides of the Duergar, Nere, and all the deep gnomes though, because when I was trying to get rid of the rocks from the cave-in, it took me three tries D: The gnomes wouldn't run away, so they got caught in the blast radius

It's interesting that the finale fight changes. In all my previous runs, I had no issues because I normally I split up characters to different parts of the map. Astarion to the left wall to take care of all the goblins, ogres and the warlock. Then Emperor and a spellcaster to the right high wall to take care of cambions and mindflayers. Then Healer and another spellcaster down the center to take care of beholder (also helps with counterspells). This time because I was more in a rush, I placed all main characters at the center and allies towards the side. That was a mistake the AI took advantage of immediately, and used the Mind Blast cone to essentially stun 2+ characters per turn.

I have always wanted to try a lightning build, and I want to test out monks. This run, I tested out an ice build which was fun, and I also stacked lower critical hit items on Astarion (rogue-multiclass).

Do you know how hard it was to convince myself to do a Gale romance?! 8'D Astarion is my favorite, but at the end of the previous run, I got to hug Gale after we removed his netherese orb, and I was like, I really should do right by Gale. Yet every time I get into the story, I always have a soft spot for Astarion and his scars *sigh* This time I got to the Gale romance, and I was like, just let Gale do his illusion. And it was like CIRQUE-DU-SOLEIL! 8'D Anyways, I get outside and Astarion was all "I SEE YOU HAVE A NEW LOVE :|." LOL And I had the option to "I choose Gale," or "I choose you both." I went ahead and chose Gale, because I try to stick with one romance per playthrough, and Astarion goes "What we had was just for fun anyways. BUT I CAN STILL LOOK AT YOU ALL I WANT." D'8 You could tell he actually liked Tav. *ALL THE FEELS.* Anyways, when I got to Act 3 Gale romance, and I got to the boat ride, my brain was all I MUST TELL ANSKA, our resident Gale connoisseur. 8'D

I swear, Aylin fails all the mindflayer saving throws. Even during the Act 2 Myrkul fight, she gets mind controlled and started smiting Astarion =_= It's because of her I started using Omeleuums ring and equiping "Calm Emotions"

Crim, I'm gonna write a response to your after this post, because this one is getting LOOoooNG. xD

OMG. That screenshot is horrific and HILARIOUS. I also remember you posting about keeping all Durge "innocents" killed in your camp chest. This is up there 8'D My cousin did a Minthara run, and the same thing happened to him. I couldn't stop laughing because every time he had Minthara in his party, EVERYONE (and their grandmother) at Moonrise would stop him and ask why Minthara's not in prison. Then he quicktraveled to Last Light Inn and it got worse:
Him: *Has done nothing except quicktravel with Minthara in his party*
Ever NPC at LLI: *Aggroes*
He got so mad, he killed everyone at LLI 8'D

I was like, I'm never going to recruit Minthara. She causes nothing but chaos and she makes you lose too many NPCs. When he finished Act 2, Minthara disappeared from his party, and I was freaking out like "DID YOU RECRUIT HER ON AN EVIL ROUTE FOR NOTHING?!" He googled it, and it turns out, Minthara was sitting on Ketheric's throne 8'D When he found her, she said along the lines of "I do enjoy sitting on the thrones of dead men." (:3 HA!)

Don't get me started on Lae'Zel. In one of my playthroughs, the Inquisitor fight almost killed my entire party. I ended up killing everyone with just Gale. When I had Gale go back and resurrect the party, Lae'Zel stabbed Gale in the back. I was so annoyed, I immediately had Astarion stab her to death, then carried her in my backpack the rest of the game. I wasn't trying to skip her story, I was literally trying to longrest and get everyone healed up, BEFORE going into the Astral Prism.

After that ordeal, I kill her in every run. On my honour mode playthrough, Orin kidnapped Lae'Zel, and after the Orin battle, I just left Lae'Zel tied to the table. I have noticed if you kill Lae'Zel early or she follows Vlaakith, you have WAY less Githyanki encounters. In Act 2, I didn't get ambushed on the bridge before Baldur's Gate waypoint, and in Act 3, Voss doesn't ambush you if you don't save Orpheus.

I *LOVE* that screenshot. I also play drow (or Tiefling), and Orin's carapace + what color dye is that(?) = *chefkiss* I like how she even matches the color of the brain throne xD I've been meaning to post on your Transmog thread. I need this, miss-matched armor looks like butt.

Dark Urge solo vs Orin is harder. Entire party vs Orin did not cause me trouble. I have two wizards in my party. Abjurration and Evocation. My Abjuration wizard had a stack of 21 shields, and at level 12 both wizards can do Level 6 Magic Missile, which gives 9 missiles each. Between the two of them, they have a stack of 18 hits and Orin only blocks up to 12 per round. I had Astarion use ranged Menacing attack, and he frightened Orin, so she lost her turn and didn't even attack 8'D For anyone having trouble with Orin, if you have Danse Macabre, Radiant Guardian, Walls of Fire and additional summons (e.g. Elementals, Cambions), those all help.

I actually was playing around was Cold/Ice this playthrough and was also testing Arcane Acuity. In retrospect I sort of wish I had tried freezing Orin or Raphael because I swear that'd make a nice screenshot xD

I went mostly full class, almost no multi-class.

• Tav: 12 levels Abjuration Wizard (stacked Ice equipment)
• Shadowheart: 12 levels Life Domain Cleric (radiant + stacked 4-5+ healing equipment)
• Gale: 12 levels Evocation Wizard (stacked Arcane Acuity)
• Astarion: 3 Thief Rogue/4 Battle Master Fighter/5 Gloomstalker Ranger Multiclass (stacked 3-4 critical hit reduction equipment)

I agree. I absolutely LOVED the combat, it was way more fun with the legendary actions. I am doing a new playthrough, but on Tactician. The main reason is the save file limit.

I lost so many NPCs this run, I lost US within the first few minutes. I lost Barcus during Nere fight. Rolan died during the Lorroakan fight. What was interesting was Aradin was outside Sorcerus Sundries, and I missed a dialogue check against him. He then ambushed the entire party at longrest. Because of Aradin, Aylin then confronted Tav about not telling her about Lorroakan seeking Nightsong, then she rushed into battle herself. What's interesting was, I hadn't even spoken to Lorroakan yet. All I did was speak to Rolan, inquire about Nightsong, and check what he was selling.

As I said in the otehr thread, mostly bugs get me - when I met Raphael for the first time at the harper camp near the Emerald Grove and he teleported me to the House of Hope, the game stuttered and crashed - instant panic attack. I fought the spider matriarch and convinced the owlbear to stay peaceful and that damn devil ruins my honour mode without me even saying anything against him (yet). But luckily crashes don't destroy honour mode, so I was able to just boot up in the beginning of the House of Hope again and all went normal.
I so far haven't lost anyone, but some more serious bugs - like the party skip turns bug in Moonrise or a bug, that prevents me from lifting the Shadowcurse. Halsin just vanished from my camp without comment (which is a good thing) and some other strange things. During the Marcus fight the game froze and I had to close and open again.

My biggest panic attack so far was the Yurgir fight, I wanted to go the lick teh spider and convince the displacer beast to leave route, accidently hit the wrong button, got out of stealth and started the fight with disadvantage with Yurgir and Co above me. I had luckily good initiative and threw every lingering AoE up there from Arms of Hadar to Spike Growth. It worked, I killed them with not much lost health on our side. Ketheric was a walk in the park compared to that scare.

My girl was mostly lucky with preventing fights, since she is a sword bard/archfey warlock and can basically sell bathing suites in Icewind Dale. She is in Rivington now. My biggest fear right now are House of Grief, House of Hope and maybe Orin fight (I'm not playing a Durge)

Congrats to @Lillith on her honorable victory. The brain dying to a vampire bite is wonderful.

I've only experienced honorable deaths so far.

First time, gith patrol. After that I decided to use the mask of the shapeshifter and talk my way out of the fight.

Second time to Oliver. Went into the fight without metaknowledge and he wiped the party in just a few rounds.

Third time I decided I needed to use the dark arts of metaknowledge, found out the boss powers and did everything but Ansur. But I still died! I had him at 19hp and then he went supernova again. I had already used all but one of my globe of invulnerability scrolls in the house of hope and that was that . . .

And my toon wakes up on the nautaloid with a strange sense of deja vu.

@fylimar. Congrats on Yuguir. I decided to fight the rats instead which really paid off in the end. I found the Cazador fight more difficult than the House of Grief. Viconia is currently bugged - even if she lives you can no longer let her go . . .

Really? is Cazador that hard in honour mode? He is a pushover in the other modes.
And Viconia: She normally doesn't live in my games anyway

So is Oliver!

It's the only one that has a timer on it - which apparently still counts down after you free Astarian - his boss power is pretty impressive and they seem to have improved his AI. He ends up flying to the parts of the battle not illuminated by sunlight.

Second time I went in cheesy. I
I found House of Grief little changed from other modes but Viconia has some pretty good powers

What is the difference between HM and Tactician Cazador? I feel on the normal difficulties the fights strongly depends on what you bring along (and if Astarion is PC, which is basically easy mode for this fight). Edit: Thank you for answering that!

But I was wondering about Viconia, she didn't give me her normal dialogue last time around but seemed to think we were back at the mapping of the heart instead.


I confess, not having to choose is one of the reasons why I tend to romance them with each other. XD Elegantly solves the problem.


During the Act 2 fight, that mind flayer is the first to go and during Act3 I only call her if there is nobody left who could mindcontrol her. She is so unbelievably bad at her WIS saving throws, it's not even funny anymore. Well, it is a little funny. Poor Aylin, you don't deserve to have your mind messed with so much.

He can call a swarm that does pretty massive force damage and for some reason he kept targeting my Tav wizard instead of the clerics as he did in earlier modes. When my wizard went down it undid the sleet storm, got rid of my summons and kept me from counterspelling. And of course others wasted a round reviving Tav

On the second playthrough I made sure to have death ward active and I bought everything the tabernacle merchant had to sell.

Oliver completely bugged out on me in honour mode.

House of Grief was teh fight, I found the hardest in normal modes tbh and the most dreaded.

This is my HoG strategy:

Battlefield left, right and center.

Oh yeah! My overattachment-to-NPCs;

Minthara knew it best until she became officially available


Actually now that you mention it Lae'zel truly is a freaking wild cannon to have in Honour Mode. Literally the only companion who can end your run entirely if she turns against you at the Creche or at the very end. That butt-clenching moment where I had to waste x3 inspiration points with ADVANTAGE to persuade her against the Inquisitor was insane, I couldn't believe the terrible rolls.

Never felt so afraid of her in my life because if she turned against me in that moment it would've been game over since she's built as a crowd-control raging monster in my playthrough;

So as someone who actually did end up losing an Honour Mode because of her, I understand the pain quite well;


I know, right!

Mismatched aesthetics and not being able to look the part sucks balls! I really wanted her to perfectly match the throne for the Chosen Durge ending, so I intentionally wasted my own turn during the brainy fight to quickly strip her down and swap to Orin's carapace ([Harlequin Black and White Dye]) before delivering the final blow. Talk about priorities in battle, gotta look presentable for world domination as Father's Chosen

Raphael popped up and grabbed Tav the second I walked out of the Druid Grove (on the path to Alfira) :x That was the EARLIEST I have EVER gotten him. I didn't get any crashes during my playthrough.

I lifted the shadowcurse without issue. My first blind Honour Mode playthrough, I full-party died to Oliver because I left Shadowheart and Tav inside the wasting quiet legendary action. The second run, I was EXTRA careful. I waited until my characters were at level 8-9, finished Balthazar and the Gauntlet of Shar before I tackled Oliver. He was surprisingly easy once I knew to pull away from him, don't attack his shield directly, and pull up a wall of fire so that all the shadow Olivers just die on contact.

Yurgir is one of the main reasons I do not play warlock. I actually went into that battle with 4 inspirations to persuade him to kill himself. Even if you can persuade him to kill off the myrmidons, that makes things much easier. I have finished the full battle (all 8 myrmidons, Yugir, and 2 displacer beasts), and there is actually a ledge where you can sneak up behind him, and get surprise advantage. The hardest part is crowd-controlling all the myrmidons, and remembering to pick up the nice little bombs Yurgir throws so they don't explode.

^ THAT IS EXACTLY HOW I DIED MY FIRST RUN. I actually posted about it on the Honourable Deaths thread

I have considered an Origin Gale playthrough where he ascends to Godhood and takes Astarion along with him 8'D

That screenshot cracks me up, but I feel like that only covers the Tieflings. What about all the innocent Myconids? No mushrooms were harmed in your Durge playthrough? xD

I chose Tav over Durge for that exact reason. In Act 2, I didn't want to deal with accidentally killing a romantic interest, if I failed the rolls. Honour mode made it so that I am extremely stingy when it comes to the inspiration rolls. I will only use inspiration, if it changes the outcome of the game/or if I fail a roll it means a character lives or dies.

You know what would be nice? If we finish honour mode, if they allowed us to keep the difficulty of the fights, but unlock additional save slots. I actually really liked my builds in this run, but once I finished the netherbrain battle, it autosaved in the reunion camp, so I can't go back and look at anything in that run.

*ROTFL* I thought about that, because in the screenshot the outfit looked perfect, and I knew you were griping about the cape, gloves, and the boots not matching this outfit, so I was like... Did they remove all of that during battle?!

As I said, Yurgir I triggered by accident. And then I was surprised, how good my group dealt with him and his adds. I barely took any damage at all. And I remember, how he wiped the floor with my group the first playthrough.

Lol. Almost word for word what happen to me during that encounter. Oh. Oliver. I know this just put up the spirit guardians, cast a fire ball and . . .

Nope, nope, nope. Worst thing I could have done. The shadow copies were spread out across the battlefield and I couldn't misty step or dash my way out of the wasting quiet.

With cazador I was expecting sleet storm and sunlight to do more than it did. My Tav got initiative but Cazador was second and he used his boss power to take down my wizard. Gale (life cleric) used sunlight but Cazador just flew to the edge of the map ans started casting spells again. Jaheria was supposed to cast a second sunlight spell but she was paralyzed. Next time everyone had potions of guileful movement and I was fine.

I did metaknowledge House of Hope so who knows if I would have found it more difficult if I didn't know the boss powers.

Looking forward to more success stories but hard to beat "died by vampire bite"

Adding: On hording inspiration points. The sage background gives you inspiration from books so I carry inspiring books with me so I'm always at 4 before one of the moments. The book of dead gods, the secrets of shadow druids, the illithid book that Omelleum sells, druid diary and the final diary of the spider matriarch all give you inspiration points. If I'm lower than 4 before a difficult check I take a moment to read a book. Also means that Gale has points to spare.

Oh the shrooms... that was their own fault, I did not even want to kill them



Absolutely, I actually use my 1st failed Honour run for that purpose. Because as I mentioned, after losing my Chosen ending to Orin I completely lost interest in that run and rushed the end, so I have pretty much the entirety of ACT 3 content to play around with and test various builds/stuff. And when I'm done I just throw myself down a chasm so it doesn't get overwritten.

As for Durge; I love that scene so much! Honour Mode or not, wriggling like a maniac and trying to bite'em is so funny that I do it every time